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Art Works the Best of the Art of Noise

Written By Monday, April 25, 2022 Add Comment Edit

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ART OF Dissonance

"Can I say something?"

Class D

Introduction

ALBUM REVIEWS:

  • 1984: Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?
  • 1986: Daft
  • 1986: In Visible Silence
  • 1987: In No Sense? Nonsense!
  • 1989: Below The Waste
  • 1999: The Seduction Of Claude Debussy

Disclaimer: this folio is not written from the point of view of an Art Of Noise fanatic and is not generally intended for narrow-perspective Art Of Dissonance fanatics. If y'all are deeply offended past criticism, non-worshipping approach to your favourite artist, or opinions that do non match your own, do not read any further. If y'all are not, please consult the guidelines for sending your comments earlier doing so. For data on reviewing principles, please see the introduction. For specific not-comment-related questions, consult the message lath.

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Introduction

The Art Of Noise never were an actual band; they were an artistic project who liked to make music simply hardly ever felt like playing music, manner before artistic DJing became a mass phenomenon. Calling them the Beatles of electronic dance music would be too high an laurels considering they only really put out one total classic and the residual of their output has remained of debatable quality over the years; but certainly the impact of that one album had been huge, so huge that The Fine art Of Noise are guaranteed a stable spot in the annals of music history regardless of any opposing opinions that I, or y'all, or the spirit of Frank Sinatra might come upwards with.

The "band"'s creative father was Trevor Horn, former Buggle and Yeah member and by the early Eighties - head of the experimental ZTT (Zang Tung Tuum) characterization, which was, apparently, ane of the primary competitors of the famous 4AD studio when it came to creating radically new types of music. Yet, the differences in approach were obvious: where 4AD focused on the "ethereal", making unusual sonic texture the cornerstone of their concerns, ZTT preferred to focus on the "hasty electronic", making stuff that could be appreciated by mainstream listeners yet at the same fourth dimension remain seriously experimental. (That's putting it very roughly, of course). Of class, there was always the ever-reliable Kraftwerk to practise that kind of thing, simply, beginning of all, Kraftwerk were running out of steam, non having had a new album since 1981, and, second, Kraftwerk were Germans; the globe needed something fresh out of a more trustworthy Anglo-Saxon oven. The Art Of Racket was just the thing. Under the guidance of Trevor Horn, 3 very revolutionary-minded gentlemen and one equally revolutionary-minded lady past the name of Anne Dudley came together and produced an album which complied to the post-obit requirements: a) it was almost entirely based upon sampling, which gave it both an experimental border and an unusual danceable drive that would be unattainable through regular means; b) it was perfectly attainable as a bones listening experience, at least to everybody who could accept the new approach with an open mind; c) information technology was lightweight and fun. Lo and behold, sampling was introduced into mass civilization, and the breakdance craze striking the fan. Today, the revolutionary qualities of AON's 1983-84 output can be easily overlooked just considering pretty much everybody in possession of a good synthesizer, let alone a quality recording studio, can exercise this. But before AON, nobody did it. Yes, there were the 'elitist' works of Kraftwerk, and stuff by even more obscure and artsy electronica wizards, and, of course, New Wave was in full swing, but this particular brand of music-making, which, fair enough, fifty-fifty at present many people refuse to acknowledge every bit 'music' in the start place (although information technology certainly deserves to exist called that much more than something like Metal Machine Music), just didn't exist. All the same, that's all history talk; history talk, as interesting as it can be, tin never supersede sincere enjoyment of music. And this is where I come up to the all-time part of all. Likewise oft, electronic/sampled music seems to be done by people from a different planet, which makes it almost incommunicable for a person with a primarily "rock" groundwork to enjoy it fully even if he's fix to respect the effort (yep, talkin' 'bout you lot, Autechre). Simply this never practical to Art of Racket. However innovative and, at times, openly crazy they could be with their means, in the end the music betrays a love for the basics of pop music; were it not so, they would not have even begun to try and make melodies out of samples of neighing horses and revved upward engines. At times, they could fifty-fifty be openly romantic ('Moments In Beloved', non surprisingly, their all-time known song of all, and the one that will probably survive fifty-fifty when 'Close To The Edit' no longer does). Unfortunately, they weren't able to sustain the momentum. Others had picked upwardly the ball and ran with information technology. Perhaps 1 of their big mistakes was parting ways with their guru, Trevor Horn, and starting to make music without his artistic protection - although, to be fair, I accept no idea merely how much Trevor actually brought to the recordings. 1986'south In Visible Silence was a decent follow-up to the breakthrough of Who's Afraid?, just lacked the hilariousness and overall freshness of the former, even if they were all the same experimenting like mad, even bringing in Fifties' guitar hero Duane Eddy for inspiration. And so, the following yr, they took the hugest adventure of their career, with the sprawling twoscore-minute collage of In No Sense? Nonsense!... and crashed on the ground in a million cleaved pieces. Information technology was pretentious, meandering, and actually made no sense, in the bad sense of making no sense. They were never quite the same afterwards; retreating to brand more restrained, less defiantly experimental music didn't help their reputation much (although I do like Beneath The Waste), and by the end of the Eighties the "band" - or "project", rather - fell autonomously. Subsequently that, nothing was heard of them for almost a decade, apart from a huge 4-or-5 series of remixes fabricated by exterior artists, which I will non be discussing or reviewing here considering this has little to do with The Art Of Noise per se. And a reunion in the tardily Nineties, when they were unexpectedly joined past former 10cc keyboard player Lol Creme, certainly did not aid to rebuild their reputation. On the other hand, I have a hard time trying to imagine what kind of anthology would help rebuild information technology. Maybe they should starting time thinking about a commonage project with Linkin Park'due south frontman. In whatever case, what is important to sympathise is that Who's Afraid is a full (or most-total) classic and if you don't own this and yet consider yourself an electronic/trance/techno/whatever fan, you're nothing only a helpless phoney, like that guy side by side door who proclaims himself a seasoned heavy metallic fan even if he never ever ventured beyond Metallica's Black Album. That anthology solitary guarantees them the current overall rating. Every bit for the rest of their itemize, continue with caution. Below The Waste product is my second favourite, merely most critics pan it as their weakest effort; on the other side, I admittedly abhor their improvement album (brr!), just many fans prefer to see information technology as a modern art stone masterpiece, so go figure. Lineup: Anne Dudley, Johnathon J. Jeczalik, Paul Morley - all kinds of all kinds of things; Gary Langan was their irreplaceable engineer and colleague. And don't forget Trevor Horn, of course. The 1999 reunion was powered past Dudley, Morley, and Horn, with Lol Creme of 10cc/Godley & Creme coming on board for no apparent reason.

    General Evaluation :

    Listenability: 2/five . More often, this is music to "contemplate" than to "listen" to.
    Resonance: one/5 . 'Moments In Love' is resonant. The rest is... quirky.
    Originality: iv/5 . Well, they more or less ushered in a whole epoch of musical stylistics.
    Adequacy: 3/5 . The other two points omitted for all the (multiple) times they didn't know what they were doing.
    Diversity: 2/5 . Creative evolution? Positive. Pursuing a whole set of different goals? Negative. Sampling everything in sight doesn't equal diversity.
    Overall: two.4 = D on the rating calibration.

READER COMMENTS Section

ALBUM REVIEWS
WHO'Due south Afraid OF THE Fine art OF Racket?

Year Of Release: 1984

Tape rating = 10
 Overall rating = 12

Isn't it funny how techno-pop began its life every bit this LIVELY JOYFUL concoction?..

Best song: CLOSE (TO THE EDIT)

Runway listing: 1) A Time For Fear (Who'southward Afraid); 2) Vanquish Box [diversion one]; 3) Snapshot; 4) Shut (To The Edit); 5) Who'south Afraid (Of The Art Of Dissonance); vi) Moments In Love; seven) Momento; 8) How To Kill/Realization.

Well, normally, everybody's afraid. Merely give information technology merely one spin and you lot'll understand that in reality the album title is much more ironic than its is "threatening".

Yous could indeed argue that this was the showtime techno-pop album e'er; you could really win the argument, as well, because this is no goddamn Kraftwerk hither. Producer Trevor Horn, yes, the same Trevor Horn that was once a member of Yes, and his gang o' 3 weird product/engineering/mixing goons, with Anne Dudley at the tiptop, set out to revolutionize popular music with this puppy... again. And pretty much succeed. Now I'thousand no expert on electronica-based genres of the Nineties, but I know for certain that techno, trance, house, yous name it, they all owe a lot to this album; and I certainly know for sure that these guys were ahead of their time at least a skillful five or 6 years or so. In fact, I wonder what kind of things shocked reviewers were writing about information technology at the time. Run into, this is by far the showtime, or the first well-known, album, that really introduces the practice of sampling; and past sampling I don't hateful merely 'cutting-and-paste' kind of things which Can were doing a decade earlier, but more like sampling in the modernistic sense of the discussion. Just the most simple case: the one-minute 'Snapshot' builds upward a cyclic pattern of pulsate machines, synth loops and croakings around the famous 3-note pianoforte riff of 'Baba O'Riley'. Unproblematic and effective, really fun, besides, and as far as I know - unprecedented. Apart from that, I guess the best way to describe Who's Afraid would be "audio collage", just different, for case, the underground industrial bands of the fourth dimension, Art Of Noise were definitely trying to mold their collages into rhythmic, about danceable grooves. Heck, what's up with "well-nigh"? They are danceable! 'Beatbox', although in a somewhat different version, was, like, the ultimate intermission dance soundtrack of its time! This is why they proved so "influential", with tons of techno and trance performers ripping out the weirdness and imagination of this music and leaving just the rhythmic punch. Ah well, we tin can't blame them for all the techno crap they've launched upon this world anyhow, or else we'd have to blame the Beatles for Barry Manilow or something. In any case, I can't say that deep down in my soul, I like this album all that much. I'm not saying it has no emotional or entertainment value - information technology'southward simply way too weird and convention-disturbing and jerky for its own good. However, and this is very important, neither does it fall into that category of records which I perceive as "museum quality" (i.east. mind to it once or twice to become a unique, curious experience, and then shove 'em somewhere deep in the cupboard then that you can forget all about 'em, and so mayhap rediscover them x years after and become the same feel again). For the simple reason that I seriously had the urge to relisten to at least parts of it at to the lowest degree several times, and lemme tellya, this never happened with any Faust or Einstuerzende Neubauten record. Weird, considering the but more than or less 'normal' vocal on information technology happens to be the x-minute long opus 'Moments In Love', and ironically, it's likewise by far the worst number: unlike all the other grooves, which are energetic and disturbing, 'Moments In Dear' is supposed to exist a slow moody romantic 'electronic shuffle', with no unpredictable melody/mood transitions, no sampling, no crazyass vocal effects, just a few New Age-mode synth chords actually played throughout its duration. For 2 or three minutes, I could reasonably tolerate information technology; five minutes would be justified if two of them were defended to that 'different' mid-department; only ten minutes of it is tiresome as hell. And it merely sticks out similar a sore thumb - non actually innovative either. Maybe they only really wanted a "normal" composition in at that place so that people wouldn't be put off that much, simply why stick it in the middle and then? Don't go me wrong - the bones premise is beautiful, but ten minutes? Nah. In any example, if a guy is gonna be put off by this record, he'due south gonna be put off beginning with the first two or three minutes. 'A Time For Fear (Who'southward Afraid)' opens the proceedings with a foreign spoken anti-imperialist bluster, then a raving onslaught of echoing drum machines that sometimes become into unpredictable loops together with the accompanying bits of said rant, and so calms down with a short synth-only New Age-meets-medieval interlude, then the drum machines boot in again. And so, with a funny 'oh no I don't believe it... ba ba ba bam' the record leads y'all into 'Crush Box', which is... nup, I guess it'due south impossible to draw it. Sometimes yous be gettin' a funny funky bassline. And then suddenly the bassline is no more, and instead you go a poppy guitar riff, and then that bassline pops up somewhere from some other direction and information technology'south all speedy and apparently computer processed and looped and whatsoever, and all around you lot you get swirling dancey synth patterns and vocals coming from every management saying all kinds of jumbled nonsense. Very oftentimes, you're going to run into the same melody bits and the aforementioned vocal bits in dissimilar songs; it's all similar an insane potpourri, a large slice o' pie chopped into several pieces and scattered randomly throughout the forty minutes. I swear I did hear these looped automobile-ignition noises in several numbers at least, although, of course, they're mostly prominent as the rhythm-substituting elements of the single 'Close (To The Edit)', arguably the best known song on the album. (And I do judge that the Yes reference is intentional, seeing equally how at that place was Trevor Horn producing this thing, plus they actually pronounce 'to be in England, in the summertime, with my dear, close to the edge' at ane point). And if you mind very advisedly, you'll notice that the bassline driving the song forward is actually a slightly modified rockabilly kind of thing. Only information technology meshes with the ignition rhythm perfectly. One matter that people usually forget to mention about Who'southward Agape is how fun information technology all sounds. You probably wouldn't look a bunch of samples to beg for a description involving the words "lively", "joyful", "enthusiastic", "childishly hilarious", etc., but these are exactly the definitions that spring to listen. It is all perhaps all-time symbolized by Dudley'southward unabashed, refreshingly sincere fit of laughter at the end of the title track - and the echoey 'Boom!' she yells into the microphone like a trivial child who's so innocently happy about only having discovered a supercool gadget and being able to mess around with information technology. I mean, the things they're doing aren't all that different from whatsoever you the cool (or, rather, the uncool) weird experimental guy are doing sitting all alone in the nighttime with your computer and a agglomeration of .wav files, dicking effectually trying to make something unusual. They merely happened to exist the first people to really proceeds notoriety with this - and as well, to exercise this better than most other people. I'chiliad not going into details over the remaining tracks - they're all pretty similar, with recurring themes and lookalike atmospheres. But anyway, this is certainly an outstanding record, and it actually symbolized a time when people were taking the practices of sampling and estimator processing and trying to create a whole new musical world, a whole new sonic dimension, a whole new emotional pattern, mayhaps, with it. I estimate in the terminate, they didn't succeed - tiresome trip the light fantastic toe people just took over the easiest of their achievements and discarded the major ones. But that doesn't mean these records aren't worth your attention; afterward all, just because hippies did not manage to bring peace and dear to the whole world does not mean yous can't savor Crosby, Stills, & Nash even in the modern day earth.

READER COMMENTS Department

DAFT

Yr Of Release: 1986

Record rating = eight
 Overall rating = 10

One of the few compilations I can allow myself to charge per unit. WHY? BECAUSE I'Grand DAFT!!!

Best song: out of the 'new' ones - (Iii FINGERS) OF LOVE, just that's not saying much

Track list: ane) Moments In Dearest; 2) A Fourth dimension For Fear (Who'south Agape); 3) Shell Box (diversion one); four) The Army Now; 5) Donna; vi) Memento; 7) How To Kill; 8) Realization; 9) Who's Afraid (Of The Art Of Noise); 10) Moments In Love; 11) Bright Dissonance; 12) Flesh In Armour; 13) Comes And Goes; xiv) Snapshot; xv) Close (To The Edit); 16) (Three Fingers Of) Honey.

Okay, I'm cheating meself (and you) a little bit out here, as this is actually a compilation. However, everybody knows that dealing with experimental bands' catalogs is only such a tremendous hurting in the rear finish you just accept to allow yourself some license. Daft basically combines the majority of Who's Agape with re-makes, little variations on the themes, and, most important, tracks taken off the band'due south debut EP, Into Battle With The Art Of Noise. Since the EP is hardly available in any form, it'due south kinda just that I review at to the lowest degree this compilation instead. And I empathize information technology makes this sequence slightly anachronistic, but pardon you me, information technology wasn't yours truly who started fucking around with chronology in the starting time place. If I were to practice my will over all the albums ever released, I would have prohibited this lightheaded approach to compiling textile, along with stupidly concocted boxsets. Unfortunately, we live in a costless world.

At present, anyway, this thing starts off with a shorter, seven-infinitesimal reworking of 'Moments In Love' (subtitled "browbeaten" on my edition - why?!), which I actually much adopt to the ten-infinitesimal version. It'due south shorter, yet at the aforementioned time manages to be more dynamic than the long version - with a graceful, romantic, New Age-y piano intro, later on which relaxed indigenous (yep, with congos and bongos and shmongos) percussion very, very slowly starts introducing the main theme - and then in that location is some kind of development, instead of the never-ending monotonousness of the big version. In this way, the prettiness of the theme tin't exist "beaten" into the basis as hands as before. And unless my memory fails me, in that location'southward actually more different sonic patterns that we meet on the way in this version. Then they too reprise the theme at the finish of the album, where information technology is chosen '(Iii Fingers) Of Love', slowed down, and given additional tasty piano treatment - actually, the pianoforte playing hither is admittedly gorgeous, I only wish I knew who's playing exactly - and additional goofy heavenly whispers, a little a la 10cc's 'I'm Not In Beloved' (or a la generic adult contemporary - these happen to exist the same matter, except that 'I'1000 Not In Beloved' simply turned out generic in retrospect). As for the few tracks off the debut EP, they are, of course, in the main vein of Who's Afraid, merely perhaps even more radical in a certain "youthful enthusiasm" way. 'The Army Now' just pushes the sampling practice over the top - equally they loop the 'in the army now' and 'tra-la tra-la tra-la la' vocal $.25 over and over in all kinds of unlike ways, you well-nigh end upward getting a flick of some overecstatic teen goofily pushing the keys while sitting over some hi-tech music-making program on his PC, making fun of all of his .wavs as he goes along. Except that, of course, in 1983 it must take taken hours and hours and hours of work to cut and paste all those bits. Anyway, the effect is hilarious fifty-fifty nowadays. The short excerpt 'Donna' isn't particularly interesting... even if it does manage to grasp the essence of trance, rave and house within its minute and a half as practiced as anything - all the while sampling what sounds like it could be a tiny fleck of Dave Gilmour's echoey guitar from 'Run Like Hell'. However, 'Flesh In Armour' is some other terrific highlight, apparently influenced by industrial, equally information technology's arguably the loudest percussion-based instrumental that The Art Of Noise ever did. Of course, in direct opposition to standard industrial piece of work equally, say, pioneered by Einstürzende Neubauten, they don't spend much time banging and clanging - information technology's all sampled and looped and thrown together in dissimilar ways. Only hey, that helps make information technology louder when necessary! It's a fun lilliputian work for sure, and very "militaristic sounding", I might say - fully redeeming the Into Battle monicker. In fact, it's interesting how these tracks are so creepy and gloomy: one thing that doesn't seem to stick too much to Fine art of Noise is "darkness". Madness (of a positive character), hilariousness, beauty, moodiness, yes, just they never actually tried to scare you in any way on Who's Agape. Here, there are brief moments of genuine creepiness. I wonder - could we call their early career a "gradual development from darkness to light", then? Nah, that would probably exist likewise assumptuous... Elsewhere, all the tracks seem to be more or less the aforementioned every bit on Who'southward Afraid (I don't accept the song lengths at hand, but supposedly 'Snapshot' is a whole infinitesimal longer on here, not that information technology really matters), so count this every bit, what, a review of one remix, ane variation, and three additional tracks. The resulting picture, of class, is fuller than the 1984 album, so Daft - available in print - makes for a perfect introduction to the early on Fine art Of Racket audio. And since that's all that is needed for the review, let me just constitutional on for a few seconds nearly the essence of this sound... I guess information technology'southward fairly like shooting fish in a barrel to suppose that the original band did non include mass adoption of their 'music' into their possible plans. I hateful, heck, even today this detail brand of sampling looks similar it belongs alongside Centre Pompidou-style modern art or sumpthin'. Yet somehow, where Centre Pompidou-mode modern art still has nothing more than obscure - and questionable - museum value, the music that these quirky guys pioneered was quicky adapted by the masses merely as, say, Kraftwerk's oeuvres were rendered accessible and pop with the upcoming of synth-pop. If annihilation, it just goes to show how there'southward actually only a tiny pace between the "mainstream" and the "alternative" (or "inaccessible", "elitist", whatever). Heck, yous think prog-era Genesis are for the select few? Well, how'due south nearly Styx and Journey popularizing 'em? Einsturzende Neubauten may be unlistenable to the common ear, just clothes their clanging upwards into only a wee bit more melodic kind of clothing and you have Depeche Fashion. The departure is just then goddamn flimsy in so many cases that whatever attempts to build a firewall between the two opposites seems kind of ridiculous to me. Pitiful for the rant. The anthology's called Daft anyway, so if yous think I'm an idiot, that would fit in quite naturally, wouldn't it?

READER COMMENTS SECTION

IN VISIBLE SILENCE

Yr Of Release: 1986

Record rating = 9
 Overall rating = 11

Looks like they're really trying to make music hither. Merely information technology still works.

All-time vocal: PETER GUNN

Track listing: one) Opus 4; 2) Paranoimia; 3) Eye Of A Needle; four) Legs/Slip Of The Natural language; five) Backbeat; 6) Instruments Of Darkness; vii) Peter Gunn; 8) Camilla - The Old Old Story; nine) The Chameleon's Dish/Beatback; [BONUS Rail:] 10) Peter Gunn (extended version).

No Trevor Horn? Well, what's in a name but a little-known Yes member who couldn't even turn an album like Drama into a timeless masterpiece. Turns out that Dudley & Co. can office every bit a functional function even without their spiritual mentor. At that place have been fabricated subtle changes, though. And the subtlest change is the about painful: they don't sound nearly as.. uhh... juvenile on this tape. Information technology'south darker and denser and at times, it's fuckin' serious. And it'due south merely not as captivating to hear an avantgarde record that takes itself seriously as hearing an avantgarde tape that just goofs around with you. If only for the reason that there'due south style besides many records that fall into the former category and way too few that autumn into the latter.

Even so, information technology's a good album, and every bit every good album, it grows on you from the minute yous have firmly established that this just might be a skillful album. The big temptation nigh it was the single 'Peter Gunn', released at the same time and featuring Duane Eddy himself on guitar. Really playing, not merely sampled, unless I've got something wrong. It was, of grade, an excellent choice, and today, along with 'Close To The Edit', it simply might be the most "quotable" AON track of all time. Eddy'south bones guitar riff is, of course, used as the spine for all the usual AON gimmicks - synth loops, electronic drums, sampled effects a-enough and hilarious dum-dum-dumming vocals. Mayhap the nigh telling moment is when they actually try to reproduce the melody with a sequence of their favourite sound - that of the automobile engine revving upwardly! That moment only got to be heard. And for the diehards, this new CD edition that I am reviewing actually adds an extended 6-minute version of the track as a bonus (with Eddie muttering 'oh you don't recall I should do one more?' midway through). Yet, great fun as it is, 'Peter Gunn' merely isn't very typical of the residual of this album - in terms of atmosphere, it hearkens back to the debut, and the only thing that it has in common with the remainder of In Visible Silence is that it's much more of a compact musical performance than any of the early on numbers. But the opening track - 'Opus 4' - is "anti-musical" (just a bunch of overdubbed Dudley vocals sounding occasionally non dissimilar a stoned Beach Boys outtake from the Grinning sessions); most of the rest not just accept rhythms, but really melodies. And they're much more openly danceable, besides. In fact, 'Paranoimia' definitely has a disco glitz to it, although, of course, a weird one. Keeping up with the tradition, much of the album'south 2nd side is given over to 'Camilla - The Old Onetime Story', a moody, half-ambient (merely rhythmic) instrumental that looks like the yonger sis of 'Moments In Love'. In fact, it'due south nigh every bit skilful equally 'Moments In Love', simply lacks the major hook of that monster, and the 10cc/'I'm Not In Love' connection turns out way too stiff (those deep hushful vocals singing gibberish I can't decipher are hardly a coincidence). And then there's 'Instruments Of Darkness', some other huge epic that more than or less matches its name - it is dark, starting from the ominous overdubbed political commentary throughout and ending with the sometimes most Wagnerian "orchestral" whomps and swooshes. Maybe a 'Hey! Hey!' or a 'can I say something?' would assistance somehow convalesce the atmosphere, but instead of that, we but go proto-Rammstein yells of 'come on!'. If nosotros prefer to speak in terms of catchiness, the best song after 'Peter Gunn' would accept to be 'Legs' - an almost mainstreamish synth-popper... then again, look a minute, I continue forgetting that at this time Art Of Noise pretty much were mainstream, right? Weren't they supposed to exist selling out the electronic hole-and-corner and all? Well, on 'Legs' they're doing it keen fine, and it's a terrible pity that and so few Eighties' synth-poppers bothered to written report their approach - with numerous overdubs, diverse keyboard tones, and repetitiveness based on cyclic development rather than on... well, on repetitiveness. At that place's a whole slew of catchy moments on 'Legs', and the biggest problem is you're gonna take to fish them out, simply similar you have to fish out the best 10cc hooks off their classic records - there'southward just and then many of them they can't bring themselves to repeat them more than a couple times. 'Backbeat', in the meantime, rises to almost epic heights at times - it'due south definitely ambitious, what with all the Quadrophenia-like synthesizers giving the rails ballsy (or mock-epic) majesty it probably doesn't deserve, only, to requite them their due, they never actually audio pretentious. You know, subsequently all, that it'southward all just 1 big quote, and that if sometimes the synthesizers swirl around in pseudo-violin phrases that actually belong on 'Love Reign O'er Me', this is totally intentional. (The ring'southward Who fetish is pretty interesting, really - remember the 'Baba O'Riley' sample? Hmm, could it be a masked tribute to Pete Townshend equally one of the large "electronic sample" innovators of the early on Seventies?). All in all, the "Hornless band" are still going strong, only whereas that earlier 12 was afforded past me out of true inner devotion, this hither 11 is afforded rather out of respect and curiosity (plus there's 'Peter Gunn'). That said, I can see where serious fans of AON and similar music could adopt this over the debut - provided they actually respect their idols more when they're serious. Because, honestly, these are no longer naughty kids messing around with their dad'southward electronic toys. These are stern conceptual artists making some kind of point (although it's difficult to tell exactly what kind of point). And since I honestly believe that this kind of music is at its best when it'southward openly airheaded, well, you get me drift here. 'Peter Gunn' is silly, so I love it. 'Instruments Of Darkness' ain't featherbrained, so I... uhh... feel it's sorta respectable. But really, this is a expert album. The 11 is deserved.

READER COMMENTS SECTION

IN NO SENSE? NONSENSE!

Year Of Release: 1987

Record rating = 7
 Overall rating = 9

Too much defoliation to brand proper sense.

Best song: question irrelevant.

Track listing: 1) Galleons Of Stone; 2) Dragnet; 3) Fin Du Temps; iv) How Rapid?; five) Opus For Iv; six) Debut; vii) E.F.50.; 8) A Twenty-four hour period At The Races; 9) Ode To Don Jose; ten) Counterpoint; 11) Roundabout; 12) Bribe On The Sand; thirteen) Roller one; xiv) Nothing Was Going To Stop Them Anyhow; 15) Crusoe; 16) One Earth.

Now this is no fair already. I loved them when they were hilarious and limerick-oriented. I liked them when they were serious and composition-oriented. But at present that they're serious and oddbit-oriented, I find it damn hard to tolerate them. If Who'due south Agape was a risk that actually paid off, so Nonsense! is a bluff so obvious that I find myself reaching for the candlestick.

They picked a Thickasabrickish approach with this i, streamlining all the tracks with practically no breaks betwixt them (and the ones that are there are pretty blurry anyhow), which substantially means that either you're gonna have to intently sit down through this stuff several times with the tracklisting in your hands or yous're merely gonna accept to abandon promise and let information technology all stick together. I honestly chose the latter style subsequently making the decision that I'd rather spend my time sorting out a few unclear click efflux correspondences between Northward Khoisan and South Khoisan dialects in the lateral/alveolar serial - that is, doing at least something truly constructive. And so excuse me if I only mention one or two titles here. And excuse me if I put frontwards the hypothesis that choosing this particular approach for an album of sampling/techno experimentation was not a particularly sapient idea. Because, in the terminate, they got what they wanted. Is this record acceptable? Aye. They took a big bunch of noises, samples, snippets of melody, added 1 or ii "finished" tracks, and called information technology Nonsense. Because it is nonsense. It makes no pretense of making sense. Simply information technology's not really the kind of nonsense that holds up well over the years. It's outrageously dated nonsense. It doesn't Practise annihilation. You don't dance to it, you lot don't laugh to information technology, you don't cry to it, you can't even scream "WOW! Now THAT'southward WEEEEEEIRD!' at the top of your lungs because it ain't any more weird than [insert the championship of your favourite weird album here]. It's just there. It'southward that kind of modern art which comes up to yous and says, 'Hi! They say that as of today, I'm Art, nice to encounter yous!', and you lot become 'Uh-huh. Say, you got any idea where the restroom is?' and you probably never meet again for the balance of your life, but at least you lot didn't punch each other in the face or anything. As usual, in that location is the obligatory i "archetype" on hither - the ring'due south reworking of the 'Dragnet' movie theme, which is, indeed, a fairly infectious electronic dance-pop number, although nowhere nearly as inventive equally 'Close To The Edit' or gimmicky as 'Peter Gunn' (no Duane Eddy here to bridge the gap between the Onetime Guard and the New Por... err, Experimentators). When it jumps out at y'all later the 1-infinitesimal sequence of solitary piping sounds, it's actually a keen Leap for Artofnoisekind, but, unfortunately, the merely one. The tune goes on for 3 minutes, and once it's over, yous enter this twisted, complex jungle of whatchamacallits mixed with thingamajigs, and you never get out until xxx five minutes later. Lemme make a quick cheque which might rev me (or y'all) upwards... then there'south a agglomeration of people loudly going somewhere... at present there'south this loud sci-fi onslaught with abrasive percussion booms... now in that location'due south a bunch of Bach-similar organ notes... the percussion onslaught is back again - what's this, Mars assail?... ah, there it is, all quiet, somebody laughing in the groundwork... hmm, sounds similar the repetition of an orchestra... here comes something gloomy and unnerving, with a scary, just lazy bassline... what's this, ethnic beats? bongos? stupid synth blueprint, really... repose once more... something vaguely industrial chunking and bunking in the groundwork... now there'due south something cohesive - the orchestra really starts to play... proficient... go along it upwards... that's definitely not Art Of Noise, but I like it... classical music lovers delight help me identify this... hmm, looks similar they got the opening 'Dragnet' bit performed by the orchestra every bit well... somebody screaming and whooing... more of their trademark dum-dum-dumming and their favourite audio (starting upward!)... now, maybe nosotros can dance to this at least?.. nah, way too slow and the bongos are too quiet... plus, it'due south got adult contemporary synth background... expect, now it actually starts to grow... still unclear if it'southward a moody ballad or trip the light fantastic toe music... probably both... the piano sounds pretty good... they stopped... there they go once again... false alert... stopped over again... started... wait, no, they let it slide... new rhythm... this one's definitely danceable, merely the melody sucks... the machine starts upwardly again... somebody delight tell them there are other interesting sounds to exist sampled apart from motors being revved up... nice bassline... sucky synths... slows down... end of side i... Await A Minute END OF SIDE ONE? I'M Notwithstanding WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN! Well, actually, side two is a fleck better. I do like 'Ode To Don Jose' with its freaky synth melody and smashing idea of sampling (Dudley'southward?) laughter several times before passing it through a "vocal grinder" for the last fourth dimension. I'm likewise quite partial to 'Roller 1' which really does roll along, with a great pumping bassline and a "driving" synth melody which, in its own perverted fashion, really rocks or, at least, gives the impression of going somewhere. (There's too a few really cool bits of "generic" Eighties pop-metal guitar that'southward given a mean wolfish howl in this setting). And the last trach, '1 Earth', with its crude, just working mix of insane yodelling with Eastern overtones and indigenous beats, gives us a glimpse at Art of Racket's future dabblings in "globe music", as well as stands pretty well on its own as a cool moody interlude. Merely even these three tunes are all the same islands in a sea of noodling - sometimes crappy, sometimes tolerable, but always forgettable. I practice award them one extra indicate for the conception. On a purely 'intellectual' level, this variegated puzzle does await interesting, and fifty-fifty if most of its components were nothing new by 1987, the idea of glueing them together in this monolithic way was still fresh - most experimental people were still thinking in terms of individual compositions. And In No Sense does work ameliorate equally a whole than as a sum of its parts; unfortunately, mostly considering the parts themselves are and then encarmine weak. Or possibly I'm but imagining things and it would take worked better as a row of cocky-sustainable compositions, meaning that this 'mosaics-like' organisation principle is unsuitable for experimental music. Simply nah, I think they could accept worked information technology out fine. What's expert for Jethro Tull could take been skilful for Art Of Racket. At least it's way better than whatever Tull themselves were releasing that year. I'd much rather listen to 'Dragnet' than to 'Steel Monkey'!

READER COMMENTS SECTION

BELOW THE Waste matter

Year Of Release: 1989

Record rating = 9
 Overall rating = eleven

Nope, it does Non hurt to get a little bit more normal from fourth dimension to time.

All-time song: YEBO!

Track list: ane) Dan Dare; two) Yebo!; 3) Catwalk; 4) Promenade ane; five) Dilemma; 6) Island; seven) Chang Gang; 8) Promenade 2; ix) Back To Back; ten) Flashback; eleven) Spit; 12) Robinson Crusoe; 13) James Bond Theme; fourteen) Finale.

Judging by the few bits of information I've managed to gather on this album, it'due south non exactly occupying any of the top slots on the "All-time of AON" list past whatsoever of their admirers, and it'south non hard to meet why. If Who's Afraid? represented the band in the days of their hooliganish youth, In Visible Silence saw them every bit slightly more responsible 20-plus-yr olds, and In No Sense presented them as nigh ridiculously mature, ultra-serious philosophers of avant-popular civilization, and then Beneath The Waste is senility at work. Restrained, free from excesses, heavily influenced by both world music and the ever-growing ambient scene, information technology is the quintessential antithesis to everything that was Who's Afraid?.

But goddammit, I like it - to the bespeak of declaring it my 2nd favourite AON record. If yous're looking for innovation and revolution, showtime looking elsewhere; and, come to think of it, it would be hard to imagine AON achieving annihilation truly revolutionary after shaking our worlds with their debut. They did try, that's for sure, but it was nowhere near as funny or every bit exciting. On Below The Waste, they don't even try. Yet calling this record a disillusioned or uninspired sequel to the overblown In No Sense wouldn't be exactly right either; this is not an "obligatory" sequel, nor do I feel any particular lack of inspiration. What I do feel is a sense of 'getting dorsum to normal'. From challenging, but essentially meaningless (both intellectually and emotionally) collages, Dudley & Co. movement dorsum to a more basic mode of musicmaking, where each composition, be information technology innovative or bourgeois, is supposed to serve some particular purpose. And they stay there. And it's not a magnificent tape, but information technology's a well done one. The single hither was 'Yebo!', an anthemic techno-meets-African-crush stomper on which they actually collaborated with African musicians; personally I find it equally solid as annihilation they'd washed before. Danceable, tricky, and - to our uncivilized European ears - quite funny. As far as its spirituality is concerned, hey, I'll go out that up to your personal taste; my impression is that AON'southward proto-techno noises don't detract from the African essence one chip, nor do the moderately used generic Eighties' metallic guitars. Subsequently on, world music makes a return in the 3 minute 'Chang Gang', which is actually more techno than ethnic, merely notwithstanding manages to make sense. What makes it hard to write about this stuff is that nigh of it is just 'mood music', non necessarily ambience, but very practical-oriented, if you know what I hateful. 'Yebo!' might merely be the simply track on here displaying whatever kind of ambition. Elsewhere, 'Catwalk' merges a bit of indigenous chanting with a - for the near part - discoified backing track (disco bass, funky guitar, orchestration a la Saturday Night Fever, all the necessary requirements), significant it's totally inessential; only it does accept a good melody. 'Dan Dare' looks similar it wants to sound anthemic and universalistic, but never really takes off the ground or presents the listener with a glorious climax - instead, it merely works as something you tin can comfortably relax to on a quiet sunny morning while sipping your Martinis on the front porch of your cozy piffling villa outside Honolulu, with the waves quietly rolling upon the golden beach and all... uh, pitiful, incorrect contingent here. Never mind. I withal have no idea why they decided to comprehend the James Bond theme - maybe the relative success of 'Dragnet' convinced them the play tricks was worth repeating. Well... on a certain level of perception, in that location'south nothing wrong with it. I likes me the James Bail theme, and if information technology comes to actually owning information technology on a non-Bond related soundtrack, Art of Dissonance certainly qualify as a practiced selection for performing the shit. Again, there'due south always the question of creative integrity: obviously, you don't need to exist The Art Of Dissonance in guild to cover the James Bail theme, especially not when you're doing it in such a perfunctory and almost by-the-book way, with not fifty-fifty a single "can I say something?" forth the style. But remember, nosotros have already agreed to accept that this band here has nix to exercise with the 'classic' Art of Noise, oasis't we? That it'south just a bunch of solid entertainers making intricate and entertaining, but hardly challenging music? Correct? What do you hateful, we haven't? Just how much attention are you willing to spare whilst reading these reviews? The only other runway that got them some attention was 'Isle', a sprawling New Age-y instrumental with lotsa soothing orchestration and pianos that sounded like information technology belonged in some sappy, but stylish sentimental drama along the lines of Sleapless In Seattle or whatever the equivalent of that movie was in 1989. Heck, this whole album sounds like a goddamn soundtrack, and I gauge had it been a existent soundtrack, it would have been received with a fiddling bit more than warmth. Just I've ever treated soundtracks with justice, I think (that is, every time I actually immune myself to review a soundtrack, I mean), and this pseudo-soundtrack should make no exception. In item, I quite similar 'Isle'. And I can even directly proper noun one of the principal reasons why I similar 'Isle': its stripped-down atmosphere. Aye, it'southward sappy muzak, but it boasts none of these hoo-haaing "celestial" synthesizers that are the main plague of adult contemporary, and the main soft-jazzy piano theme is so fresh and then pretty I don't see why I shouldn't be aesthetically pleased with information technology. Finally, if we're gonna build our case on diversity, permit's not forget the "fell" menace of 'Back To Back', with its gruff metal riffs and pompous orchestral punches. Ain't really memorable either, merely in between the ethno-techno 'Chang Gang' and the Caribbean-flavoured 'Spit', it really works. Equally does the lightweight waltz of 'Robinson Crusoe' (!). Tee hee. In brusk, hey, I like this record. In fact, I can't imagine how an album similar this, with modest goals like these, could sound any better. And it was an unremarkable, just honest way for the band to become out - after all, where are you lot supposed to exist headed for later on y'all've reached the senility stage?

READER COMMENTS Section

THE SEDUCTION OF CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Year Of Release: 1999

Record rating = 3
 Overall rating = 5

I sincerely hope this is NOT how art-rock is going to sound in the third millennium.

Best song: nah.

Rail listing: one) Il Pleure (At The Plough Of The Century); 2) Born On A Lord's day; three) Dreaming In Colour; iv) On Being Blue/Continued In Colour; 5) Rapt In The Evening Air/Metaforce; six) The Holy Egoism Of Genius/La Flute De Pan; 7) Metaphor On The Flooring; eight) Approximate Mood Swing No. 2; 9) Intermission; 10) Out Of This World.

Excuse me for a moment while I extricate all the foulness from my oral fissure. This is utterly, completely, and infuriatingly horrible. This sucks beyond the slightest possibility of redemption. This is a mockery of everything I ever valued in music, literature, art, physiology, and the life of Mahatma Gandhi. This is a living nightmare that could spoil Hannibal Lector'due south digestion system. This is the audible equivalent of the worldwide consequences of Earth War III with special emphasis on the destructive force of the H-flop. Allow's put it direct: I HATE HATE Hate this anthology. And if this is really "Art Of Racket", then you can probably call Laurie Anderson the Queen of Pop.

Start of all, the background. After Below The Waste product was critically lambasted worldwide, AON promptly disappeared out of the limelight, and for most of the Nineties, the only reminders of their existence had been all these numerous remix albums similar Ambient Collection, The FON Mixes, etc., all of which I take but few of which I'm really interested in; most of this stuff qualifies every bit decent background music, or perchance as honourable tribute to the one band that started it all. Towards the end of the Nineties, though, nostalgia has taken its toll, and then Dudley, Morley, and - oops! - Trevor Horn himself came together, drafting ex-10cc weird guy Lol Creme in the process. The bones idea was to do something big, because this was the fuckin' Art of Dissonance, and if they were coming back, what were they gonna come up back with? A agglomeration of trance instrumentals? They're the godfathers of techno, after all. No, non just the godfathers of techno: The Patron Saints Of All Things Controversial And Rulebreaking. And equally such, they decided to pay symbolic tribute to one of their predecessors, and also a patron saint of controversy: Claude Debussy. He who defied the rules of conventionality in classical music at the turn of the final century, he would now symbolically exist glorified past his spiritual followers at the turn of this century. Thus the legacy of Claude Debussy The Smashing and the legacy of Art Of Noise The Terrible would intertwine, become one and brand the transgression over to the next century in this monolithic unity. One hell of a projection! And it hurts. Ooh, how desperately it hurts. Now I would have tolerated it had it been bad. Unlistenable. Defiantly offensive. Juxtaposing samples of Debussy'due south music played backwards and interspersed with a flushing toilet. I'm non the biggest fan of epatage for epatage's sake, simply I would have understood it. No - this album is offensively boring. It is offensively going absolutely nowhere for one haemorrhage hour. It is offensively indecisive about whether it wants to exist a celebration of generic pulsate'due north'bass values, a tribute to Debussy'due south operatic inclinations, or a solemn-sounding chunk of New Age muzak. It manages to endeavor and be all of these things and become none of them. Through the ridiculously overblown (and textually primitive) narration, it manages to make a fool of Debussy, and likewise make fools of those who are making a fool of Debussy. It tries to make some kind of serious point - but adds cypher to any we might learn of Debussy by listening to his music and/or reading his biography. And the new things it does add together are utterly and eminently forgettable. I tin can't even begin to discuss these tracks considering they're, uhh, non-discussable. Maybe I just don't become this kind of music, of course, but then before making this decision we'd accept to make up one's mind what kind of music this is in the first identify. The first track ('Il Pleure') begins as a boring mood-based pianoforte instrumental, then bursts into operatic chanting, and then transforms into a pulsate'northward'bass-based "composition", at times punctuated by cocked narration from, uh, the narrator. I swear I've heard much better music in estimator games. The drum'n'bass stylistics completely wipes out the gist of the classical passages, and the classical passages return the pulsate'northward'bass parts completely "ungroovable". Even so, even when the danceable melodies are not burdened by classical passages, the situation is hardly ameliorate. I dunno, once once more, maybe I just don't understand the charms of the drum'northward'bass way, but one thing I know: stuff tin can be melodic, rhythmic (danceable), atmospheric, or, well, "event-like". In that location's a tiny bit of each in 'Born On A Sunday', just it's just not enough to make any impression on me. The melodic $.25 are curt and feeble, the rhythms aren't "toe-tappable", the atmosphere doesn't dig deep enough, and the 'events' are... well, if you lot count an occasional bloop or out-of-nowhere funky guitar line an 'event', it'due south okay, but compared to earlier triumphs, this doesn't even qualify as a parody. Some - very minor - face is saved on more straightforward numbers similar the techno stuff of 'Dreaming In Color' and Rakim'due south invitee rapping on 'Metaforce' (after all, it is absurd to hear the proper name of Baudelaire rhyming with 'dynamic in the evening air' in the context of a rap delivery), just even these are immediately squashed by the countless boring wanking on tracks with appalling names like 'The Holy Egoism Of Genius'. Yeah right - more similar 'The Profane Egoism of Shithead'. And then, to top information technology off, at that place is a v-infinitesimal fade of a heavily beating heart which just well-nigh completely puts to shame the miserable minute or so at the end of Dark Side Of The Moon. Boy, this is some genius. I take to reiterate for those who might think I'chiliad being also harsh on this slice of crap: I have nada in item against "mood music" every bit such, and I don't go cold shivers at the idea of hearing drum'n'bass (although I'yard definitely no fan of information technology either). This anthology sucks considering it is gruesomely inadequate. With a concept as huge as this ane, I'm all set to hear an epochal masterpiece to terminate all masterpieces, something of Quadrophenia stature - and all I get is this ridiculous mess of simple, uninventive, and not peculiarly resonant arrangements. I tin't imagine a single situation in my life, exist it today or 10 years after, when I could mayhap experience a need to listen to something similar this. If I want pleasant, inoffensive mood music, gimme that Brian Eno album; if I want an operatic masterpiece, well, like I said, I can always choice Quadrophenia. What an ignoble end to such a formerly good ring. Oh, and what's arguably the worst moment on hither: that final track, 'Out Of This World', starts with the "narrator" solemnly announcing: 'Ladies and gentlemen... The Fine art of Noise!' After which, just as yous're expecting that the glorious Art Of Noise are at least going to cheer you upwards with a final reworking of 'Close To The Edit' or something, on comes the chirapsia eye (with a few ambient piano chords that are even quieter than Brian Eno'south Thursday Afternoon in the background). Fuckety fuck fuck. And I listened to this thrice.

READER COMMENTS Department

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